


life after war

by Yavemiel



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Divergence - Everybody Lives, Domesticity, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Vignettes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 15:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13192692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yavemiel/pseuds/Yavemiel
Summary: This is what life after war looks like, not just surviving, but living.





	life after war

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spacepandar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacepandar/gifts).



> This is for the incredibly lovely spacepandar for the Rebelcaptain Secret Santa, who requested: 'A simple, peaceful RebelCaptain scene (could be set in the SW-verse or AU)', and who is also the creator of the stunning art by which the vignettes are inspired (go and check out her art tag on Tumblr, it's incredible!).

[This is what life after war looks like.](http://spacepandar.tumblr.com/post/167581355935/shades-of-purple-jyn-cassian-pleeeeease-and)

Jyn runs down the ramp of her transport, heartbeat echoing in her ears, thumping against her bruised ribs, but she doesn’t care, doesn’t care, doesn’t care because somewhere down there, somewhere on this base, Cassian is waiting for her. She hasn’t seen him yet, but she can feel it in her bones.

She turns one corner, then another, scouring the crowds ceaselessly, countless reunions taking place before her eyes, laughter and tears and shouts, but she can’t find him and...wait.

Stop.

There he is, almost blended into the background, a spy to the last, even though the war is over now _(the war is over now)_. His eyes are scanning the crowd, roving restlessly and she can feel a smile spreading over her face as her whole being calms, bodily aches fading away at the sight of him.

He spots her as she moves towards him, weaving her way through the soldiers and a smile lights up his face, weariness banished by joy. He moves towards her too, and suddenly they’re standing in front of each other and she stops dead still, almost afraid to touch him now that the moment is here.

She opens her mouth to say something, anything, but then their eyes meet and her breath catches and whatever he sees on her face breaks the spell and he sweeps her into his arms, holding her tightly and she smiles into his neck and brings her own arms up to hug him back just as tightly.

The base continues bustling around them, but Jyn doesn’t notice or care. She’s home.

**

[This is what life after war looks like.](http://spacepandar.tumblr.com/post/160539070040/rebelcaptain-wildfire)

Jyn’s ribs are aching again and she can barely catch her breath. She feels almost light-headed from the lack of oxygen, can feel her diaphragm hitching as she attempts to get air in, but she can’t help it, she just can’t stop laughing.

Next to her she can feel Cassian’s body shaking with hysterical laughter as well, and her own hilarity fades briefly as she forces her weeping eyes open to take in the sight of his face so close to hers, smile so wide it looks almost painful, the genuine joy on his features erasing the extra years that the stress of fighting a war added.

Then she looks back at Kay, suspended by both feet a good two metres from the ground, his face as annoyed as it can be without mobile features, and she bursts out laughing all over again.  
  
“I fail to comprehend the hilarity in this situation,” he says snippily. “I am in a position of peril, and the two of you are utterly useless.”

Jyn feels Cassian straighten slightly as he attempts to control his laughter, although his speech still has little hiccups of mirth.

“Kay, we told you that there were no bears in this part of Takodana, we told you that the traps were dangerous and that someone would end up caught in them accidentally, and if you can’t understand the irony of finding you literally hoist to your own petard, I’m not sure I can explain it to you.”

Despite his words, he wanders over to the release mechanism in the root of the trap as Jyn continues to giggle.

“Irony is the most pointless of human creations, and I wouldn’t waste processing space on attempting to comprehend something that is at heart, illogical and simply AAAAAAAAK.”

Kay crashes to the ground in a tangle of metal limbs as Cassian hits the release mechanism and as Jyn is overtaken by another wave of helpless mirth, she meets Cassian’s laughing eyes and thinks, _yes, this is what we fought for_.

**

[This is what life after war looks like.](http://spacepandar.tumblr.com/post/160325544280/rebelcaptain-12)

Cassian loves his new life, he truly does. Settling down with Jyn in a small village in the outer rim in a place that is neither Fest nor Lah’mu but some lush haven that is entirely their own, making friends with the neighbours without ulterior motives, frequent visits from Bodhi and missives from Baze and Chirrut as the latter drags the former around various sand dunes as far as he can make out: this is a life he couldn’t have imagined five, even two years ago, before Jyn blew into his life like a whirlwind, opened his heart and rekindled his optimism and showed him something to live for after the fight was done.

The problem is though, Jyn’s not here right now, and hasn’t been for almost a week, and Cassian is _bored_.

Whatever complaints he has about his time in the Rebellion (and he has complaints, just not as many as Jyn thinks he should have, and they kind of disagree about the things he’s complaining about), he can’t remember a single moment of boredom. Long flights through hyperspace were filled with intelligence reports or the precious chance to catch an hour’s uninterrupted sleep, ‘down time’ was filled with more reports, repairs to Kay’s chassis or (rarely) a game of sabaac with Kes and Shara.

Now however, faced with his fifth consecutive day of busy work, he’s stumped. Kay has gone with Jyn, their cottage is the cleanest it’s ever been, he’s organised and re-organised their holodisk collection three times and he’s finally come to the reluctant conclusion that Jyn might be right.

He needs a hobby.

Unfortunately he has no idea where one begins looking for such a thing. He wanders round the house aimlessly for a few hours before reluctantly sitting down at their data centre and logging onto the holonet.

His hands hover over the keys for a moment before he hesitantly types in ‘hobby for men’. He waits briefly as the page loads, then his eyes widen and he hits the ‘back’ button as fast as he possibly can, because honestly, what is _wrong_ with people?

He considers more carefully this time before searching for ‘games to waste time’. He scrolls quickly past the first-person shooter games, because honestly, he’s had enough of that to last a lifetime. He plays a few rounds of a memory game that requires him to match up covered tiles, but quickly tires of that and moves onto something that bills itself as ‘gentle fun, making friends with animals and designing your own space’ which...huh. He designs his avatar and logs in.

Three hours later he hears the door slam and he jumps but doesn’t get up from his desk. Mere minutes after that, he hears footsteps behind him and then a familiar scent and a familiar voice capture his senses.

“What’s so interesting that I didn’t merit a welcome after five days away?” She sounds amused, and he can feel his body swaying towards her, like a parched man towards water, but he only needs one more pear and then he’ll have completed all his tasks for the day and the animals will be fully fed.

She leans closer over his shoulder and he resists the urge to lean back into her because the mood has changed, it’s a game now, and well, he always was competitive.

“Animal...Crossing?”

“It’s fun,” he says, taking mock offense at the incredulity in her voice. “And I just have to find one more pear and then I’ll be done for the day.”

She slides an arm around his waist and slips closers so she’s talking directly into his ear. “And is this pear more important than greeting your wife after five days apart?”

He can feel his resolve weakening, his whole being longing to be near to her after a very long five days, but he only smirks in response and says, “Well you know how goal-oriented I can be, my love.”

He can feel her smirk as she lowers her lips to his neck, her whisper raising the hairs there. “I think you’ll find I’m pretty good at providing distractions.”

  
He shudders and his head lolls forward. He makes a last ditch effort to focus on the screen in front of him, but Jyn trails her lips up to the lightning spot behind his ear and sucks gently and he keens slightly and gives it up as a lost cause, turning to envelop her in his arms and press kiss after kiss to her laughing mouth, animals and pears utterly forgotten.

**

[This is what life after war looks like.](http://spacepandar.tumblr.com/post/160614886560/talking-about-feelings-when-the-lights-are-dimmed)

He worries sometimes.

It all seems a little too good to be true, this new life they’ve built for themselves rooted in light and joy. He worries about what happens when someone finds out about their past, about Jyn’s father, about the murders he committed in the name of the Rebellion, the blood on her hands, on his, worries that they will be driven out of this safe place by outraged neighbours.

_(Their neighbours are no fools and can guess that the newcomers with watchful eyes and concealed weapons have a past, but so does everyone, and as long as they pull their weight and do no harm, the villagers consider the past to be in the past where it belongs)_

She worries sometimes.

She worries that maybe it’s not enough, maybe she’s not enough, that Cassian will be bored, will question his decision to leave the Rebellion to live a life of quiet domesticity in a tiny village with her. She worries about what will happen when the next war comes (because there’s always another war), if he will feel the call to arms, the strings of duty tugging his limbs and heart and mind back to the battlefield away from her, because her warring days are done.

_(Cassian is done with war, done with battlefields, done with anything that doesn’t involve Jyn and happiness. He tries to show her by throwing himself into every part of their life, by externalising his satisfaction as much as he can, but he knows she won’t believe it until they come asking for him again and he turns them down, because that past is the past and that’s where it belongs)_

They worry sometimes.

It’s only human, and they’re only human, muddling their way through their life together, and most of the time, it’s fine, they’re fine. Sometimes though, it all becomes too much. Cassian flinches at perfectly ordinary questions from neighbours, Jyn’s heart leaps into her throat when she spies Cassian watching the holonews, and on days like that, they retreat together, back into the one space that was always theirs alone even when they were in the Rebellion. They lie in bed together, with the curtains closed and the lights off, curled into one and other, barely able to make out each other’s features, and into the darkness they drop their fears and give comforting words and take comfort in the warm press of bodies tangled together.

_(They set the world to rights, the past back in the past where it belongs, and Jyn and Cassian drift off to sleep in each other’s arms where they belong)_

**

[This is what life after war looks like.](http://spacepandar.tumblr.com/post/160645312605/after-the-war-rebelcaptain-broken-requested)

Funnily enough, it’s a holopic that makes it click for Jyn.

The Rebellion is years behind them now, streaks of grey at Cassian’s temples and proud laugh lines around Jyn’s eyes, and yet still sometimes she eyes the comm unit with suspicion when Leia comms, waiting for that call to arms that will take Cassian from her.

She’s in Cassian’s study, a grandiose name for a tiny alcove in which he has set up a computer and comms unit and all the papers he needs to do accounts for everyone in the village. She’s looking for a particular sheet of paper in a pile of neverending papers, cursing Cassian and his need to keep a copy of every single thing, when she glances up and does a double take.

Tucked up next to the comm unit is a holopic, right at where Cassian’s eye line would be. It’s of the two of them, from years ago, just after they moved to Takodana, tucked into one another and smiling almost shyly at the camera, still a little uncertain, but joyful and free. She remembers Bodhi taking the holo, his laughing face as he demanded they stand in front of their new house for a picture because ‘this is a moment you’re going to want to remember forever!’

She feels tears spring to her eyes as she looks at it, a blatant reminder of the importance that Cassian places on them, and she can feel the uncertainty inside her snap like an overstretched band of elastic, replaced by a core of steel certainty, that this is it. They will last.

She doesn’t know how long she stands there but eventually Cassian comes looking for her, but she hastily wipes at her eyes as he slides into the alcove before her.

“Hey, have you found it yet? It should be under the...Jyn?” He trails off and becomes alarmed as he takes in the tear tracks on her face.

“What’s wrong?” He moves closer, taking her in his arms even as he glances rapidly around the tiny space, searching for the threat. She can’t take her eyes off him, reaches up to touch his face, drawing his attention back to her.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she says, unable to stop the massive smile spreading over her face. “In fact, everything is perfectly right.”

She stretches up to press a kiss to his lips, and despite his confusion she can feel him responding, softening, one arm sliding up her back to cradle her head, and she can feel a new wave of tears threatening at the tenderness.

She pulls back just far enough to look him in the eye. “I love you, you know.”

He still looks puzzled, but happiness is beginning to overtake. “I do, I know that. I love you too.”

She beams at him, and then looks back at the holo. “I think I finally figured out why you’re sticking around.”

She looks back at him and finds he’s followed her gaze. When he looks back at her, she can see the understanding in his face and she feels a swell of love as he completes the memory.

“Welcome home.”

_fin_

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed these happy little scenes! And Happy New Year everybody! :) x


End file.
